Author
Topic: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises (Read 12423 times)

I saw this today. I thought it was great. Bane's voice was not what I expect. I thought it'd be edgier, more grit to it than the refined one he had... which is still cool. I liked Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. I was spoiled a bit about the movie, so maybe I'll have to take my wife to see it and see if she can figure out that Talia was the mastermind behind it all. I thought it was apparent she was more than what she claimed to be. Bane was more braun, so there had to be the brain behind him. I think I missed some of the action by looking at the background and recognizing places in the city. There was a quick flash of the Upper East Side's shoreline and I'm pretty sure my apartment building is in it. I loved the Scarecrow cameo. It makes me wonder what the Joker's role would have been if Heath Ledger hadn't died. As for getting the bomb out of the city, the one gripe I have is that Batman, Gordon and Catwoman are all listening to Talia's revenge story while the countdown keeps going. Why should they care why she did it? I know drama, etc. It is also interesting that Gotham = Manhattan, yet when Batman takes the bomb to the southeast, he'd be going over Queens and Long Island, but it looks like they erased out L.I. to make the bay (of course it could be glare effect for the camera).

I know they filmed in both Chicago and Pittsburgh, but they digitally alter the cityscapes anyway. But I agree, in a 'real world' I always imagined Gotham was either in Jersey or NY; Metropolis always seemed to be NYC's twin.

Nolan's Batman trilogy definitely calls on multiple cities to stand in as Gotham. In the first film and the second, it largely seemed to be Chicago. And you can totally spot a lot of distinctive Chicago landmarks: bridges over the Chicago river. Buildings that are an indelible part of that skyline. The elevated train and the roads underneath them. And even the fire escapes / back stairs like those on Jim Gordon's apartment are something you see a lot in Chicago buildings. It's interesting that Nolan decided to change things up after making Chicago stand in for Gotham as he did. But seeing how the third act of The Dark Knight Rises transpired, Gotham clearly had to be an island city in order for that plot device to be carried out. In that respect, Chicago just doesn't work.

The third film seems to be much more of an amalgam. Chicago seems to have fallen by the wayside in lieu of Pittsburgh and New York. Most of the bridges, skyline and riverfront are totally NYC. The aerials even show 1 World Trade Center which is still under construction. Lower Manhattan is part of the location for the Stock Exchange heist. And the establishing shot that shows Wayne Manor sitting on the cliff across the river from Gotham is clearly set on New Jersey's Palisades cliffs near the George Washington Bridge.

The neighborhood scenes look much more like Pittsburgh. Obviously, Heinz field is in there, too. And some of downtown Pittsburgh seems to be the location for the police chasing Batman on the Batpod.

As for the movie? I thought it was a good final act in the trilogy. Granted, I'm coming from a place where I didn't have much of a history or connection with Batman comics. When it came to comics, I was far more into reading Marvel titles. I think that Nolan was interested in a character arc for Bruce Wayne that had a clear beginning, middle and end. And I think that part of the story arc was that NOBODY, in the real world, could continue with such an obsession to be a vigilante like Batman indefinitely. Not even a billionaire like Bruce Wayne.

I like the fact that we hadn't seen the last of the League of Shadows. The League certainly seemed larger than just Ra's Al Ghul and the henchmen that were brought to Gotham in Batman Begins. Tying Bane and his partner to the League presented a viable threat to Bruce and Batman since they know who he is, and his alter ego couldn't protect him or his loved ones the way he might have intended.

As for the end of the film? I don't think it's worth getting into the physics/timeline of flying a bomb far enough offshore to get it to a safe distance. I was more tied up in the fact that Nolan had established a real sense of jeopardy for Batman. That, and the fact that for a while the audience really seemed to think that he had made the ultimate sacrifice in order to save the city. It was not a happy ending in any sense of the word. And perhaps that's why not everyone is onboard with this final chapter in the trilogy. But I have to respect Christopher Nolan for bringing us a more complicated and dark interpretation of the Batman character, and treating the audience like adults.

As for Joseph Gordon Levitt's character? I really thought that they were working towards him taking on the Robin role. But the end of the movie changed that for me when he found the cave. I almost have to wonder if Warner Brothers put some serious pressure on Nolan to give them some sort of sequel option they could use if they wanted to continue on wiht the Batman franchise given the continuity that he had established.

Logged

"You were entrusted to lead the Republic." - Vote for Ven Zallow from THE OLD REPUBLIC in figure polls!

Nolan's Batman trilogy definitely calls on multiple cities to stand in as Gotham. In the first film and the second, it largely seemed to be Chicago. And you can totally spot a lot of distinctive Chicago landmarks: bridges over the Chicago river. Buildings that are an indelible part of that skyline. The elevated train and the roads underneath them. And even the fire escapes / back stairs like those on Jim Gordon's apartment are something you see a lot in Chicago buildings. It's interesting that Nolan decided to change things up after making Chicago stand in for Gotham as he did. But seeing how the third act of The Dark Knight Rises transpired, Gotham clearly had to be an island city in order for that plot device to be carried out. In that respect, Chicago just doesn't work.

The third film seems to be much more of an amalgam. Chicago seems to have fallen by the wayside in lieu of Pittsburgh and New York. Most of the bridges, skyline and riverfront are totally NYC. The aerials even show 1 World Trade Center which is still under construction. Lower Manhattan is part of the location for the Stock Exchange heist. And the establishing shot that shows Wayne Manor sitting on the cliff across the river from Gotham is clearly set on New Jersey's Palisades cliffs near the George Washington Bridge.

Well, yeah... because they shot the first two in Chicago, and they shot the third one in Pittsburgh and New York.

Quite frankly, one of my few complaints about Dark Knight Rises was that it was so obviously New York freaking City. The most iconic place in the country. You can see the shape of the island, the Empire State Building... Saks... it seemed... lazy. None of it felt like Gotham. Hell, Ben Rothlisberger and Hines Ward were on the football team.

Quite frankly, one of my few complaints about Dark Knight Rises was that it was so obviously New York freaking City. The most iconic place in the country. You can see the shape of the island, the Empire State Building... Saks... it seemed... lazy.

Yeah, the Empire State Building stands out. But that Saks was not the one in NYC. Despite the name, Saks is a chain.

There are a lot of city street shots that could have been in a number of northern US cities that have high rise buildings. I think a good deal of those may have been shot in Pittsburgh, because there were lots of street scenes that were totally unfamiliar to me as something from NYC.

« Last Edit: August 5, 2012, 05:08 PM by Nicklab »

Logged

"You were entrusted to lead the Republic." - Vote for Ven Zallow from THE OLD REPUBLIC in figure polls!

A large majority of shots that weren't broad shots were in Pittsburgh as I understand it. The orphanage was in Pittsburgh. Just about any underground shot was in Pittsburgh. The "exile" bridge was teh Ft. Pitt bridge and was digitally altered. I'm pretty sure the bridge the people were trying to escape on was the Ft Pitt as well. I saw some of the Allegheny and Mon bridges as well. I saw the Mon Wharf. The Saks 5th was ours downtown which is closed now, but the sign was still there.

The blown holes in the ground for when the police were trapped and stuff was Pittsburgh as well. The big police/thug fight was all filmed at the CMU campus.

I could go on. I'm sure Cable and Jim could probably go on far more than I can though.

Our local (Blue Harvester on here) had a paid role with wardrobe at the orphanage... Cable and our other Bill (stormtrooper213 on here) were at Heinz Field which was blue blazing hot when they filmed that despite the winterscape.

Our mayor was the kicker for the other team and a lot of the Rogues are notable Steelers obviosly plus Cowher came back in for that.

I was gonna try to go down for the call for criminal looking people and stuff, but I didn't feel like trying to adjust my schedule and then commute for peanuts. Woulda been fun I'm sure.

The wide shots of the bridge that was left intact were of NYC's Queensboro Bridge, otherwise known as the 59th Street Bridge. I was surprised that this particular bridge would play a prominent role in the movie since it was also featured in a pretty big action sequence in the first Spiderman movie.

I thought the 'exile' bridge was the Queensboro since it had the cable car along side it (that runs from Manhattan to Roosevelt Island).

I wasn't sure about that one. I mean, who knows a bridge by the footings at the water? I for one wasn't sure that the "exile bridge" was the same bridge that was left intact. From what I could tell Gotham had somewhere between 6 and 8 bridges.

« Last Edit: August 5, 2012, 06:23 PM by Nicklab »

Logged

"You were entrusted to lead the Republic." - Vote for Ven Zallow from THE OLD REPUBLIC in figure polls!